Thumb Rests

I've never even SEEN one...

 

They just aren't as popular as the were.
Some players still use them.
Mark Egan has them on his Pedulla.
Have you ever tried playing with a floating thumb?
Do a search if you want info.
I have a couple of diferent basses so not locking the thumb on the bass makes it easier to switch between basses.

 

I've developed the habbit of resting my thumb on the pickup. I often wondered about those thumb rests because they look so comfortable!

I have a question, should I be anchored anywhere?? Is it a bad thing that will come back to hurt me in the end? Is it bad to put some sort of thumb rest on my bass?? My thumb usually start hurting a little bit after a lot of playing with it on the pickup.

...

 

I don't think any of it is bad, I just prefer not having my thumb anchored.
There are a couple anchored le here that play with out welding the thumb to the bass.

 

where's your thumb rest? Ive seen them in 3 different places, the MM pickup position, (on the Schecter Robert DeLeo Model T) below the strings and close to the neck (really OLD P basses) and also above the strings and next to the neck.

 

I used to like thumb rests, or anchoring my thumb on the pickup.

Now that I play primarily 5 and 6 string, I find that floating thumb has greatly improved my muting. It also allows you to change playing positions so that you can get different tones by just moving up or down. Pluck really hard back near the bridge, and you get a nice, growly, bright tone. Move towards the nut an inch or two, and really dig in, and you can get that Geddy Lee like almost distorted tone. Move up to the end of the neck, and get a really fat, bloomy, almost URB sound. With left hand muting, I can sound almost just like an upright.